State Budget Closure Days
This Friday, August 7, and Monday, August 10, most Cal State Northridge employees— myself included—will take our first state budget furlough days of the year. They represent the first visible and public consequence of the large budget cuts that our campus and the entire California State University system have been forced to take for the 2009-10 academic year.
These state budget closure days mean that students, their parents, and others in the community will not be able to receive timely assistance or answers to their questions and concerns related to classes, services and programs. It will be a very public sign of how the state’s budget and economy have deeply impacted the University and its ability to fulfill its mission and obligations.
These furloughs also reflect the deep harm and hardship being done to the University’s loyal and dedicated employees, who essentially will be taking a 10 percent salary reduction in return for taking two furlough days a month to mitigate deep budget cuts. Given the economic times, I know how challenging these salary reductions will be for many, and have seen first hand among staff and faculty the many difficult decisions and adjustments that will have to made due to lost income.
Just as pernicious will be the impact on the students and surrounding region we serve: we already have turned away students who were otherwise fully deserving and qualified to attend Cal State Northridge, and we will be forced to continue to turn away students to meet the systemwide goal of cutting enrollment by nearly 40,000 students to preserve quality of instruction and programs at the CSU. Many students already have seen a decrease in class selections, and when the new academic year begins I suspect we will begin to see more examples of the extent of the budget cuts.
The lost income, the impact on students, and the effect on our ability to serve the surrounding community are all the result of California being unable to fully meet its mission and obligations to serve the people of the state and, particularly, provide the kind of education that for decades has been the envy of the world and the economic engine of California. These are challenges we will continue to deal with into the 2010-11 academic year.
If you are a student, a member of the public, or an employee, we hope you will recognize that we at Cal State Northridge—the administration in partnership with the staff and faculty—have done our best to manage this severe reduction in resources by maintaining access, jobs and programs as much as possible. While Cal State Northridge is not responsible for this crisis, we are part of a system that has been seriously hampered by a financial calamity, and must share in the burden of helping the state remain solvent.
In the face of what lies ahead, I hope we can face these serious challenges as a community, while acting in a supportive and understanding manner at all levels of the University. As always, I appreciate the outstanding work that continues to be done at Cal State Northridge by its dedicated faculty and staff, and the strength of character everyone has shown during these trying times. Your continued commitment to the University’s mission and its students these past several months speak volumes about the resiliency and excellence of our institution.